Hire and pay non-US employees with Employer of Record (EOR) powered by Remote

An Employer of Record (EOR) is an employment services provider enabling you to employ people in other countries while complying with local tax and employment laws. An EOR handles everything required to hire, pay, and manage employees, including payroll, benefits, taxes, stock options, and local compliance.

Through an EOR, a company can hire employees in another country without having to set up a local entity, which can be expensive and take months. Having an EOR in place can help a business quickly, affordably, and compliantly hire employees outside the US.

Check out some FAQs and answers about EORs here.

Compliance, tax forms, data security and more

As the legal Employer of Record, for all counties that you onboard an employee outside the US in, our partner Remote is responsible for staying compliant with local employment and tax regulations. This means:

• You do not need to have an operation/entity registered in a new country—Remote is essentially hiring the employees on your behalf.
• Remote handles all country-specific tax requirements and tax withholding—including local and provincial tax regulations. 
• Remote handles all tax forms and tax documentation—for your non-US employees, and those that are submitted to local agencies (or authorities).
• Remote safeguards your customer information in accordance with cross-border data regulations.
  • You can visit Remote's Security Trust Portal to view:
    • SOC 2 Type I & Type II Report
    • PenTest report
    • CAIQ Lite Questionnaire
    • ISO27001 certification confirmation
    • Remote Security FAQ
    • Remote Privacy Policy

You can also always review Remote's terms of services, before, or after you hire your first non-US employee in Gusto.  

Gusto supports paying employees outside the US in the countries listed below. We’ll be rolling out support for additional countries as soon as possible—you can hire employees in other countries through our partner Remote.

Here are a few things you should know:

• For now, we support non-US employees in these countries.
  • We’ll be rolling out support for additional countries as soon as possible. You can hire employees in other countries through our partner Remote.
• You may not be able to add an employee outside the US if:
  • You already have non-US employees through Remote—use Remote to hire your new employees outside the US.
  • You already hired for a specific country through Remote—you’ll need to hire additional non-US employees for the same country in Remote.
• In Gusto, non-US employees can accept their employment agreement (or request a change).
  • All other details are managed in Remote—certain information will be shared with Gusto and appear as read-only in non-US employee accounts.
  • Admins will be able to:
    • See the non-US employees in the company’s org chart.
    • Accept or reject expense reimbursements. 
    • Manage time off requests
    • Add additional pay
    • View paystubs
    • Edit employee details
    • Renew benefits
• In Gusto, an employee outside the US cannot:
  • Be assigned as managers or Gusto admins
  • Be sent custom docs
  • Have custom earnings
  • Participate in performance reviews
  • Participate in in surveys and insights
  • Be provisioned apps
  • Use Gusto time tracking
  • Take trainings
• In Remote, an employee outside the US can:
  • Manage personal details and HR tasks
  • View benefits
  • Change their communication preferences
  • Add and submit expenses
  • Opt-in to benefits offered
  • Submit and manage their time off requests
  • And more…
• If you add an employee outside the US and are currently on our Simple plan, once the employee finishes onboarding, some of your features will be automatically upgraded.
  • You'll gain access to:
    • Time off requests and approvals
      • All employees will be able to submit expenses and time off.
    • Advanced time off policies
      • You’ll have access to managing policies for your US employees.
    • Expenses and reimbursements
  • If you offboard all of your employees outside the US, you’ll lose access to the features for everyone.
    • It'll take a minimum of 2–4 weeks to fully offboard an employee once the offboarding date has passed.
    • You’ll still be able to view the history of these features after you lose access to them.
    • Upgrade your Gusto account to keep these features active for your US-based employees.

For now, we support non-US employees in these countries. Once you've decided on a new hire, we recommend you:

• Share with them a summary of their employment details to set clear expectations from the start.
  • You do not need to send them an official offer letter—Remote will handle that with the “Employment Agreement”.
• Let them know about the onboarding process: They’ll get an email from Gusto to review and approve their employment summary. After that, Remote will email them to guide them through their account setup with Remote. 
  • Once they start, your new hire will only need to log into their Remote account. 

Add a non-US employee in Gusto

1. Sign in to your Gusto admin account.
2. Go to the People section.
3. Click Add new team member.
4. Enter your new team member's basic information:
   • Full name
   • Preferred first name
     • Gusto will use this name to refer to this person in communications where their legal first name is not required (offer letter, onboarding emails, org chart etc).
5. For “Worker type” select Employee—for now, you'll only see the United States, and these countries.
   • You can hire employees in other countries through our partner Remote. 
6. Enter the employee's personal email—use an existing address that's not associated with your company. 
   • This team member will use this email to sign in to Gusto and receive certain personal info.
7. Review the acknowledgements and agreements, and select the checkboxes.
8. Click Save and continue.
   
   • You may not be able to add an employee outside the US if:
     • You already have non-US employees through Remote—use Remote to hire your new non-US employees.
     • You already hired for a specific country through Remote—you’ll need to hire additional employees for the same country in Remote.
9. Enter the employment details—employees will review and accept these details when they onboard with Gusto. Our partner Remote will use these details in their employment agreement with this employee.
10. Let us know if your employee works from home.
    • This helps Remote determine and comply with any applicable teleworking laws.
11. (If applicable) Select the employee’s province of residence.
12. Enter some employment information:
    • Job title
      • Choose from your existing set of jobs, or enter a new one.
    • Department
    • Manager
      • Based on your settings, managers may be able to manage expenses, approve time off, and view reports.
13. Select a start date at least 1–2 weeks from today—if your employee doesn’t finish onboarding two days before their first day, you’ll need to choose a new start date for them.
14. Let us know if they’re already employed with your company.
    • If yes: Enter the date they joined your company—some of your employees’ rights (including severance and minimum paid time off) depend on this date.
15. Click Save and continue.
    • If you click “Save and exit” your draft will be saved on the People page in the Onboarding tab.
16. The “Employment status” will autofill to “Full-time (30+ hours per week)”—this is the only status available at this time for non-US employees.
17. The “Employment type” will autofill to “Salary/No overtime”—this is currently the only employment type available to employees outside the US. 
18. Enter the work hours per week—the number you’re allowed to enter may vary by country.
19. Tell us how much the employee makes per year (in the local currency)
    • You’ll be billed in USD based on the conversion to the local salary. Depending on the FX rate, your bill may fluctuate.
    • You can use the calculator to estimate the currency conversion to USD.
20. (If applicable) Let us know which salary type should be used for the 12% EPF calculation.
    • You must select a salary type, even if your employee is eligible to opt out of enrolling in EPF—learn more about how an employee can opt out in our country-specific resource table. 
21. Let us know if the employee should get a signing bonus—this will automatically be included in their first or second paycheck.
    • If yes, enter the amount your employee should receive before taxes.
22. Tell us if they might receive other bonuses—these can be recurring reimbursements or performance-related bonuses.
    • If yes, enter the other bonus details. Include the bonus amount, when it should be paid, and how often (e.g., yearly)
23. Select whether the employee will get commission.
    • If yes, enter the commission details. Include the amount, when it should be paid, and how or when the employee is eligible for it (e.g., with every sale).
      • Select the checkbox to acknowledge that Remote will not be liable for any claims or losses associated with the commission or bonus plan.
24. Review the "Estimated cost to employ" information. 
25. Click Save and continue.
    • If you click “Save and exit” your draft will be saved on the People page in the Onboarding tab.
26. (If applicable) Enter your company’s business description.
27. Include a detailed job description—include the top three responsibilities.
    • To remain compliant, there’s a 100-character minimum.
28. (If applicable) Enter any training requirements.
29. Select the experience level of the job—this is the experience needed to do the job, not their overall experience level. Choose whichever option fits best—it doesn’t need to align with your company’s levels, but this is a requirement for some employment contracts.
    • Level 2: Entry level
    • Level 3: Associate
    • Level 4: Mid to senior
    • Level 5: Director
    • Level 6: Executive
30. Enter a probation period, if applicable—enter a value between 0 and 6 months (the legal maximum)
    • A probation period allows your company to see if a new employee is a good fit for the job (and if the job is right for them). It's usually easier to dismiss an employee during this time.
31. (If applicable) Let us know if you want to add a non-compete clause—this clause means your employee won’t be able to work with your competitors after they leave for a set period of time.
    • If yes, enter the number of months the non-compete clause should last once the employee leaves. Industry standards are 6 or 12 months.
32. Let us know if you want to add a non-solicitation clause—this clause means your employees won’t be able to solicit your customers after they leave.
    • If yes, enter the number of months the non-solicitation clause should last once the employee leaves. Industry standard is 12 months.
33. Learn about offering benefits in the country you've chosen—additional information and resources can be found in our country-specific resource table. 
34. Select if this employee should have an Unlimited or Limited paid time off policy.
    • If the paid time off policy is limited, enter the amount of paid time off days this employee should receive—we recommend at least 20 days.
    • Learn more about country-specific time off requirements using our country-specific resource table. 
35. Click Save and continue.
36. Review the details thoroughly—if you need to edit anything, go back to do so. If everything looks correct, proceed.
37. Click Invite employee.
    • We’ll invite the employee to Gusto so they can review and accept their employment details.
      
      • If they don’t make progress in the next few days, we’ll send you and them a reminder. 
    • The invited employee will appear in the “Onboarding” tab of the People page.

What happens next?

We’ll invite the employee to review and accept the employment details in Gusto, and email you if they ask for any changes. Once they accept the employment details, Remote will invite them to create an account, where they’ll finish onboarding, including:

• Setting up their employee profile
• Uploading documentation
• Verifying their identity
• Choosing their benefits
• Adding their bank details

If all of the above is not completed before the start date you entered, you’ll need to push the start date back. 

If the employee requests changes

Review the changes with them directly—once you’ve come to an agreement, we recommend confirming them by email. Then;

• Update their employment details in Gusto.
• We’ll email them with the updated employment details to accept.  

Expectations about when their first payroll will be

The first payroll depends on your hire’s start date and whether payroll is twice a month or monthly:

• Semi-monthly (twice a month) payroll schedule:
  • If your new hire completes all onboarding tasks and joins by the 7th of the month, their first payday will be on the 15th.
  • If your new hire completes all onboarding tasks and joins by the 21st ofthe month, their first payday will be on the last day of the month.
• Monthly payroll schedule:
  • If your new hire completes all onboarding tasks and joins by the 11th of the month, Remote runs an off-cycle payroll that will be paid out on the 10th of the following month.
    • Note: The employee must be fully onboarded by the 24th of the month to be included in this off-cycle payroll.

How you update details depends on if the employment agreement has already been accepted.

Before the employment agreement has been accepted

If you need to update employment details before they've been accepted, or the employee requests a change to the employment agreement, review the changes with them directly. Once you’ve come to an agreement, we recommend confirming them by email, and then updating the details using the instructions below. 

1. Go to the People section.
2. Toggle to the Onboarding tab.
3. Next to your employee’s name, under the “Actions” column, click the three-dot action menu. 
4. Click Update information. 
5. Edit the necessary details, and complete the flow. 
6. At the end, click Save updates.

We’ll send an email for them to review and accept the new employment details. 

After the employment agreeement was accepted

Non-US employees need to update the information below in their Remote account:

• Full name
• Preferred name
• Pronouns
• Birthday
• Phone number

Admins can update most other details in Gusto—any changes to contract details will require an updated contract, and may need to be approved by Remote, and signed by the employee.

1. Go to the People section.
2. Select the employee.
3. Toggle between the Job, Pay, and Personal tab to locate the information you need to change.
4. Click Edit—for any information that is not changing, leave as-is. 
   • If you're editing contract details (ex. salary, job title, job description, etc.) you’ll need to enter a reason for the change, and the effective date.
5. Make the changes, and click Save (or Continue).
6. (If applicable) Review the proposed changes—if you need to make edits, click Edit or Back. When everything looks good, click Submit changes.

Changes that take effect in the future will only be visible to your employees in Remote on the effective date (and as needed, after Remote has approved the change).

Admins can view future-dated changes in Gusto by heading to the employee's profile and reviewing the Compensation section.

Unlike Gusto's US payroll, payroll for your EOR (Employer of Record) employees is fully managed for you. Every month, Remote handles all the non-US payroll, HR, compliance, and tax paperwork on a set schedule automatically.

• Based on the country, EOR employees will be paid monthly, or semi-monthly.

You’ll see the upcoming payrolls in Gusto when you go to the Pay section and click Run payroll. 

Review your non-US payroll settings in Gusto

1. Head to the Pay section and click Pay settings. 
2. Scroll past the "US payroll" info to find the settings for the non-US countries where you have employees.

As a reminder, you cannot change these settings—our partner Remote sets non-US employees up for automatic payrolls. Based on the country, they'll be paid monthly, or semi-monthly.

View non-US payments in Gusto

1. Click the Pay section and select Pay history.
2. Toggle to the Non-US payroll tab.  
   • Non-US payrolls are separated by pay period, country, payroll type, debit date, and amount.
3. Click on the pay period date range to get additional details. 
4. Review the summary, and scroll down to see company costs, as well as a cost breakdown by-employee.
   • As a reminder, we only pay employees in the local currency.

Your non-US employees should track and submit their hours worked in Remote. Admins review the hours submitted in Gusto, and approve or decline them. 

Review non-US employee timesheets in Gusto

1. Sign in to your admin profile in Gusto.
2. Go to Time & Attendance and click Time tracking. 
3. Under "Non-US employee timesheets", click Review.
   • The page will display the names of all non-US employees who have submitted hours in Remote.
4. From the "Actions" column, click the three-dot action menu and select View timesheet.
5. At the top of the popout screen, confirm the:
   • Employee name
   • Week the hours were worked
   • When the approval is due by
   • Approval status
6. Review the summary of hours—learn more about any additional pay you may see submitted with work hours below.
   • Timesheets for non-US employees cannot be edited by admins or managers.
7. Click Reject, or Approve at thet top-right of the popout screen. You can also approve or reject hours from the "Actions" column on the page with all non-US employee timesheets listed.
   • If you reject: We'll ask for a reason why (that employees will see), and then you'll need to Submit.
   • If you approve: You cannot undo the approval of non-US employee timesheets.

Once approved, the hours (and related wages) will be included on the next payroll. 

Understanding additional pay in timesheets submitted by international employees

While all international employees are salaried, some regions—such as the Philippines—have specific labor laws that require additional pay for overtime, night shifts, and holiday work. To stay compliant, you can review and approve these additional hours in Gusto before payroll processes.

Additional pay example for the Philippines

Employees in the Philippines are entitled to additional pay for work beyond standard hours: 

• Overtime pay
• Employees must be paid an additional 25% of their hourly rate for work beyond 8 hours in a day.
• Night differential
• Employees working between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM must receive an additional 10% of their hourly rate.
• Holiday pay
• Employees working on a regular holiday must receive 200% of their daily rate for the first 8 hours. Any work beyond 8 hours on a holiday requires an additional 30% of their hourly rate.

You’ll be able to see these additional pay types when reviewing time sheets in Gusto.

Admins can create, view, accept, or reject non-US employee expenses.

Some functionality may differ from the expense-experience for domestic employees:

• Expenses you create for non-US employees are automatically approved.
• Receipts are required for submitting an expense.
• You will not be able to edit, unapprove, or delete an expense for a non-US employee in Gusto. 
• For any expenses that look incorrect, reject them and re-create them. 
• Expenses will be applied to upcoming payrolls based on when they are approved.
• Some expense categories will always be ‘on’ because the employee will see those options in their Remote expense-dashboard.
• Expenses for non-US employees will never move to the “Paid” tab of the expenses page. If you need to confirm that an expense was paid out, check the employee’s paystubs.

To learn how to manage your expenses in Gusto, head to our article with expense reimbursement instructions. 

Employees outside the US must create time off requests in Remote

When your non-US employee creates a time off request in Remote, they'll have a list of country-compliant time off types to choose from in Remote. Once they submit the request, you'll receive an email letting you know to review the request and either approve or decline the request in Gusto. 

• Important reminder—time off policies for employees based outside the US are different from US employees:
  • Admins cannot create, edit, or add non-US based employees to time off policies in Gusto.
    • The person who onboarded the non-US employee already set a predetermined balance for "Paid Time Off"—all other types of time off balances (e.g., sick time) must be managed outside of Gusto. 
  • Non-US employees can check their time off balances in Remote—if you need to check the time off balance on their behalf, you can do so once they've submitted a request.
    • If they have not submitted a time off request yet, we'll have to help. Click the at the top of Gusto to get in touch with us.

Learn more about country-specific types of leave using the resources in this table. 

Approve or decline time off requests in Gusto

When your non-US employee creates a time off request in Remote, they'll be able to view their available balance(s) for each policy.

To approve or decline the request:

1. Click the Time & Attendance and select Time Off.
2. From the Time Off Requests tab, click View next to the employee’s time off request.
   • If the employee is on a Limited paid time off plan, you’ll see the remaining balance available.
     • Employees will always be able to request time off, even if they have, or will have, a negative balance.
   • If the employee is on an Unlimited Paid Time Off plan, you’ll see “N/A” for the remaining balance on the request.
3. Approve or decline the request.
   • If you decline, enter a note explaining the reason.

Signing bonuses

You can add a signing bonus when you add your non-US employee as a team member in Gusto—this amount will automatically be added to the first or second payroll, depending on payroll cutoff dates.

Add a monthly bonus or commission—one-time or recurring

Bonuses or commission added for employees outside the US will be added to the next eligible payroll (depending on when it is added)—review payroll cutoff dates here. 

• Important reminder: You can only add one of each type—bonus and commission. Once added, the option to add another bonus or commission will not be available until the current bonus or commission has expired or been fully paid out.

Add a one-time or monthly recurring bonus or commission:

1. Click the Pay section and select Run payroll.
   • You can also add bonuses or commissions by going to the employee profile and clicking + Add earning in the Pay tab.
2. Click Bonus payroll in the top-right.
3. For the question. “Does this employee live in the US?”, choose No.
4. Add the bonus payroll details.
   • Select which non-US employee will receive the bonus.
   • Select the bonus type–either bonus or commission.
   • Provide a description.
   • Enter the amount in the local currency.
   • Choose if the pay type should be gross or net.
   • Select the pay frequency–one-time or monthly. 
     • One-time: Choose the effective date—the bonus will be a part of the next payroll after this date, depending on the payroll cutoff dates.
     • Monthly: Choose the effective date and if there should be a set number of payments. 
       • If No, the bonus will continue to be paid monthly until it is deleted.
       • If Yes, the bonus will be paid that many times and then discontinued.
   • The effective date determines when the first bonus is paid, and the following payments will be made monthly. 
5. Click Submit.

You'll be able to view the details of the additional earnings in the employee’s profile under Pay until the bonus expires. You're also able to delete payments  from this location; however, if a payment is already in progress, it may be too late to delete. 

If you have any issues, click the in Gusto to contact us. 

Add a recurring reimbursement

Use this process to reimburse non-US employees for expenses like mobile phone charges, travel expenses, etc. Reimbursements are paid out monthly, on the first payroll of that month.

You can only add one of each type of recurring reimbursement:

• Cell phone;
• Health reimbursement arrangement, and;
• Other reimbursement.

Once you’ve added any of these types, the option to add another recurring reimbursement of the same type will not be available until it has expired or been fully paid out.

1. Go to the People section.
2. Select the non-US employee.
3. Go to the Pay tab.
4. Click + Add recurring reimbursement.
   • Select which employee will receive the bonus.
   • Choose the bonus type:
     • Cell phone
     • Health reimbursement arrangement
     • Other reimbursement
   • Provide a description.
   • Enter the amount in the local currency.
   • Choose if the pay type should be gross, or net.
   • Select the pay frequency–one-time or monthly. 
     • One-time: Choose the effective date—the bonus will be a part of the next payroll after this date, depending on payroll cutoff dates.
     • Monthly: Choose the effective date and if there should be a set number of payments. 
       • If No, the bonus will continue to be paid monthly until it is deleted.
       • If Yes, the bonus will be paid that many times, and then discontinued.
     • The effective date will determine when the first bonus is paid, and the following will be monthly afterward. 

You can delete payments from the employee’s Pay tab; however, if a payment is already in progress, it may be too late to delete. 

If you have any issues, click the in Gusto to contact us. 

Admins can view their non-US employees' paystubs in Gusto, but your employees will only be able to view their 'payslips' in Remote.

1. Go to the People section.
2. Select the employee.
3. On the right-side of the page, in the “Paystubs” section, locate and view paystubs.

Paystubs for non-US employees are provided by Remote.

Notes can only be viewed by other admins at the company, non-US employees will not be able to see them.

1. Go to the People section.
2. Select the non-US employee.
3. Go to the Notes tab.
4. Click Add note.
5. Leave a note, and click Save.

After an admin uploads a document in Gusto, non-US employees can sign in to Remote and view the file. 

Upload the document in Gusto

1. Go to the People section.
2. Select the non-US employee.
3. Find the Documents section.
4. At the top-right of the page, click Add document.
5. Give you document a short 2-3 word description (e.g., employment agreement). Your employee will see this name when they view the file in Remote.
6. Click Upload or drag and drop the file.
7. Click Save.

Learn how to renew your non-US benefits below. For now, this is only for employees in Canada and Ireland.

You'll start the dismissal process in Gusto, but our partner Remote completes these requests for non-US employees—their review can take up to 5 business days, or longer, depending on the specific circumstances.

Submit a dismissal request

1. Sign in to your admin account in Gusto.
2. Go to the People section.
3. Select the non-US employee that you need to dismiss.
4. In the “Actions” tile on the right-hand side, select Start dismissal request.
5. Review the dismissal process for non-US employees, and click Continue.
6. Fill out the employee communication details, and click Continue.
7. Fill out the dismissal details, and click Continue.
8. (If applicable) Review the employees' paid time off balances and confirm if they are correct, then click Continue.
9. Review all dismissal details for accuracy, and when you're ready, click Submit dismissal request.

Look out for an email from Remote in the next 1-2 business days. If Remote does not reach out to you within 2 business days, email [email protected].

How non-US employee payroll is funded

The funding and invoicing for non-US employee payroll are slightly different from those for US employees, since they’re powered by our partner Remote.

Here's how it works (in two steps):

1. Pre-funding invoice: At the start of each month (around the third working day), Remote sends an estimated payroll invoice to Gusto for the full month (regardless of how many pay periods there are). By the fifth of the month, Gusto will debit that amount from your account.
   • This is sometimes called a pre-funding invoice.
2. Reconciliation invoice: The following month (around the fifth working day), Remote calculates the actual payroll amount for the previous month.
   • If there’s a difference (due to exchange rates, time off, expense reimbursements, bonuses, or new hires), Gusto will either credit or debit your account to balance it.

Use Gusto's calendar to view the estimated dates the company will be invoiced.

EOR management fee reminder

Your EOR Management fee will be billed through your normal Gusto invoicing process and will appear in your monthly Gusto invoice in arrears.

Employee payment info

Your employee’s paystub will be available in Gusto on payday, and we'll make sure payment reaches your non-US employee’s bank by the end of the business day (local time).

Find non-US employee payroll invoices in Gusto

1. Click the Pay section of your admin account and select Pay history. 
2. Toggle to the Non-US payroll tab. 
3. Select an invoice—learn more about each of the invoice-types you'll see below.

While Remote pays non-US employees in the local currency, you'll be billed by Gusto in (USD). 

Select the most applicable option below for next steps.